UMD's Olivia Wallin was stopped by Gopher goalie Lucy Morgan as Abbey Murphy backchecked. (Photos by John Gilbert)

As an annual thing, Thanksgiving Weekend is a time for all of us to offer thanks for surviving all we’ve gotten through to reach the oasis of family gatherings that have come to define Thanksgiving Day.

While sports offer a wonderful escape from the real world, if you’re a football or hockey fan this week you might have to dig a little to find thankfulness.

Last weekend climaxed with a Sunday-full of sports attractions that pretty well spanned the full 24 hours. It ended with the Sunday night NFL broadcast from Denver, in which a spirited Vikings team led again by quarterback Joshua Hobbs rallied to snatch a late lead, only to have the Broncos, with their veteran Russell Wilson who is an iconic master of late rallies, snatch it back in the dramatic final minute for a 21-20 final score.

That ended the Vikings five-game win streak with a 6-5 record, and extended Denver’s streak to four and s 5-5 record. Dobbs was 26-32 for 221 yards and a touchdown, and he only gained 21 yards scrambling, but that included another touchdown.

Wilson was 27-35 for 259 yards and s touchdown, meaning Dobbs nearly matched the rejuvenated Wilson. Broncos coach Sean Payton made a special trip to single out Dobbs and congratulate him after the game.

Of course, the Thanksgiving Day main course, preceding the anticipated turkey, is the annual noontime Detroit Lions home game, which this year has added impact because it’s against the Green Bay Packers, who are making moves to push the Vikings.

The Vikings don’t play until Monday night, when they take on the Chicago Bears and Justin Fields, who nearly upset the Lions last Sunday. It’s getting interesting.

Back to Sunday, though, my sports day started with the midnight broadcast of the controversial Formula One Las Vegas Grand Prix, which was run in the middle of the night and featured the 18th victory of the season for Max Verstappen, who had to come from as far back as 11th place to finally pass pole-sitter Charles Leclerc for the lead. Leclerc, in turn, made a dramatic last-lap pass on Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate, Sergio Perez, 10 seconds from the finish.

A short night’s sleep followed and I woke up realizing the Minnesota Wild’s second game from Sweden, against Toronto, had started at 7 a.m. I watched the last two periods, when the Wild lost 4-3 in overtime but played with much more fire than in their 2-1 shootout loss to Ottawa on Saturday. Filip Gustavsson returned to the nets with a strong, 30-save performance against Ottawa, and Marc-Andre Fleury played with his usual flourish against the Maple Leafs. Wild coach Dean Evason, on a world-wide NHL Global series broadcast, said, “For whatever reason, we just aren’t scoring goals.” A big part of that reason is the sputtering play of Russian star Kirill Kaprizov, and a dysfunctional power play that spent most of three consecutive power plays dumping the puck into the Leafs zone, where the Leafs almost casually retrieved it and sent it the length of the ice.

In a stretch that is not all that long, the same criticism could cover the UMD men’s and women’s hockey teams, which, combined with the Wild, made for an 0-6 weekend for area hockey fans. UMD’s women had the pinnacle of their home season convening at AMSOIL Arena, with the annual appearance of the biggest Bulldog women’s rival — the Minnesota Gophers. But UMD’s hopes to extend its 6-game winning streak landed with the thud of a 3-1 Friday loss, followed by the almost-instant-replay thud of a near-identical 3-1 loss Saturday — featuring two short-handed Gopher goals. Ouch. 

In both games, when UMD finally scored goals — by Hanna Baskin at 9:13 of the second period in the first game, and by Gabby Krause at 3:33 of the third period in the second — the Gophers responded almost immediately, with Taylor Stewart scoring at 10:58 Friday, and by Peyton Hemp at 4:19. The retaliatory goals had particular sting, as Stewart played for UMD last season before transferring to Minnesota for her fifth year, and it broke a 1-1 tie just established, and Hemp’s Saturday goal was the Gophers second shorthanded goal and provided the final two-goal margin.

Abbey Murphy scored her 11th goal of the season to open the first game, and she tallied short-handed for her 12th in a 2-0 Gopher second period.

“That ability to respond has been with us all year,” said Gopher coach Brad Frost. “We lost a lot of scoring from last year, as did Duluth, and it takes time to make up for those losses.”

It’s no surprise that Ohio State is leading the WCHA at 10-0 after sweeping Wisconsin (8-2) last weekend, while Minnesota rises to 7-2, St. Cloud State 6-3 and UMD 6-4 among contenders. The UMD women remain at home to face Colgate, one of the East’s top teams, this weekend.  

Over in St. Cloud, meanwhile, the UMD men were invading the Herb Brooks Arena to take on their closest NCHC rival, the St. Cloud State Huskies, with a chance to continue their improved play and shake an early-season slumber that had reached 0-5-1. But the Bulldogs scoring woes continued in a game that wound up a 2-1 Huskies victory on Joe Molenaar’s gae-winning goal with 2:19 to play. It was a rough finish in more ways than one, as a full-scale physical battle broke out at the end, with the main casualty being UMD captain Luke Loheit, who was given a major penalty, game misconduct, and a one-game suspension for delivering a face-to-face cross-check. Without him, the Bulldogs  played with much more fire in Saturday’s game, reaching ties at 1-1, 2-2 and 3-3 before falling behind 6-4 on a goal by Adam Ingram with 2:56 remaining.

With goalie Matthew Thiessen pulled, UMD defenseman Owen Gallatin scored with 1:48 left to close the gap to 6-5. But the impressive scoring outburst by UMD ended there, and the Bulldogs are now 0-7-1 in their last eight, sputtering into their bye week. St. Cloud seized sole possession of first place in the NCHC with the sweep, highlighted by Veto Miettinen’s two goals, giving him eight in his last eight games. This time, Molenaar got the game-misconduct and major for cross-checking, as their always-tight rivalry ratcheted up another notch.

Minnesota’s top two college basketball attractions are in peak form, and both are women. Paige Bueckers from Hopkins is getting much national attention in her return from injury to lead Connecticut. She nearly filled Williams Arena when the Huskies came in and blitzed the Gophers Saturday, although she only scored 12 in the 62-44 UConn victory. Meanwhile, my favorite — former Duluth Marshall guard Gianna Kneepkens — stepped out of her supporting role to Alissa Pill for Utah and led the Utes to the championship in the Great Alaska Shootout tournament in Anchorage. Before the tournament, her jump shot tied Baylor 51-51, before Baylor upset No. 4 Utah 84-77, with Kneepkens scoring 18 in the Utes only loss of the season. She scored 22 in Utah’s victory over Alaska-Anchorage in the tournament, and followed up by scoring 23 in the 117-72 final victory over Eastern Kentucky. Kneepkens hit 8 of 10 shots (5 of 7 from 3-point range), and she grabbed a game-high 9 rebounds for good measure. It’s difficult to find Utah’s women’s basketball games on streaming broadcasts, but keep trying, because she makes it a worthy attraction.

Minnesota's Abbey Murphy fired a short-handed goal over UMD goalie Eve Gascon's shoulder, her 12th goal in 11 games and the Saturday game-winner.